10 Female Punk Songs You Needed to Hear in 2014

In an essay for Vulture, Anika Pyle, front woman of the Brooklyn band Chumped, called 2014 “the year that women tore down the punk-boy clubhouse and erected a big middle finger in its place.” She’s not wrong. 2014 felt like a banner year for women in punk, a genre that has always prided itself on progressive politics and open-mindedness but has often felt closed off to female musicians. Prominent exceptions to the rule like Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney bear a strange burden; they’re the token names trotted out when a music critic has to make sense of a female-led punk band — whether they sound anything like those bands or not. So what’s exciting about the current crop of female-driven punk bands is not just their abundance but the sheer sonic diversity. From the primal fury of White Lung to the singsongy sass of Slutever to the artful experimentations of Perfect Pussy, these artists prove that there is no singular “female punk” sound — there are many. Below, I’ve gathered some of the year’s best.

Childbirth, “I Only Fucked You As a Joke” The greatest kiss-off song of 2014, if not the entire millennium.

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